The War Z diaries – Day 1: Finding My Bearings

written by
Jake Mulholland
on 4.12.12

Jake Mulholland gives his very own day by day, in game account, of his experiences in the world of new zombie survival MMO The War Z

So begins my first day in the world of the inevitable zombie apocalypse. The Colorado countryside isn’t exactly the worst place to experience it. My adventure begins in the highly secure military safe zone somewhere to the south of my map. I thought to myself, what fun would it be if I just stayed in this perfectly safe military camp? On that note, I set out to explore the nearest town on my map and the rest of the zombie infested world. I set out at around 6 a.m. with the sun rising behind me. I remained highly observant of my surroundings, for both the natural beauty of the environment and the possible threat of death. After roughly 5 minutes on foot I had the first town in sight. Just before the town, a large tree had fallen providing a good vantage point to scope out the area before entering. Little to my surprise the undead had the town occupied, however it was far from an impassible horde.

I cautiously approached the town from the least populated side. It was in my best interest to be stealthy as I had little in the way of weaponry. Upon reaching the town I ducked and crawled my way through the various establishments, looting whatever goods I could find. The loud groans of the undead made it quite helpful in pinpointing their location and avoiding them. It was not until I was crossing from the town pharmacy to a nearby house that I had my first taste of combat. A zombie spotted me from afar and started shambling towards me. With my flashlight being my only means of self-defense, I clubbed him in the head with it repeatedly. The zombified villager collapsed after roughly 10 smacks to the noggin. Thankfully he was stunlocked by my effective strikes from the moment he reached me until he died (again). I noticed that he also dropped a large wad of cash upon falling to the ground. Being both confused and intrigued, I decided to add the money to my growing collection of generic apocalyptic bits and bobs. On my way out of the town I decided to inspect a military Humvee. There was little in the way of supplies near it however there was a nice camouflaged boonie hat resting on the roof. I thought this would provide a nice amount of protection from the sun glare on my journeys and some style to the whole end of the world experience.

My map showed a location known as the “Oak Mountain Rest Stop”. It sounded like a nice place which could possibly let me settle down for a while and to sort out all the things I had scavenged. This proved to be a far longer journey than I had anticipated. I found a pair of binoculars in the town beforehand which allowed me to scan the horizon for any possible threats along my way. Before reaching the rest stop I noticed a large tunnel that passed through the mountain. Cars were backed up for quite a long way down the road and the entrance to the tunnel seemed almost completely blocked. I walked up slowly keeping my head on a swivel. The tunnel entrance was effectively a military checkpoint with APC’s, Sandbags and Humvees blocking the way. Thankfully I was able to squeeze through to press onward. I looked around the makeshift fort to see what I could find. I had hit the jackpot. There were bottles of water everywhere, a much larger backpack than my current one, a helmet and even a hammer. I spent roughly 10 minutes sifting through all these supplies taking with me whatever I could carry. Further on ahead, inside the tunnel, I noticed a large pack of zombies, easily 20 strong. There was no way I could take them all on even with my newly equipped D.I.Y. tool. I crawled around a parked bus to get a better view of the situation. While trying to find a way through the hoard, one of the zombies noticed me and came rushing towards me. I quickly got up and tried to silence him before the others noticed but it was too late. Seconds later the entire crowd was heading my way so I dashed through the nearest opening I could find. I was forced to sprint my way to the end of the tunnel and out the other end. With barely any energy left I managed to escape the attention of the horde. I rested next to a tree to catch my breath and chug down two bottles of water. Oak Mountain rest stop was only a short walk from where I was.

Approaching the rest stop I could see a few zombies scattered throughout the place. One in particular was further out than the others so I decided to test my hammer out on him. The tool easily killed him with 4-5 hits to the head. I steadily made my way through the rest stop picking off the rest of the zombies one by one. An interesting thing I have noticed about the zombies is that the females only seem to take 2-3 hits to kill while the males can take almost twice as much. There weren’t many good supplies in the rest stop other than a cool looking gas mask. Not entirely sure what I could do with it but I wasn’t going to pass it up.

My next stop was boulder city, a large metropolis that could easily be seen from about 3km away. The journey was long and arduous with nothing to keep me occupied other than the sound of the birds. Boulder City easily has the largest amount of zombies I have ever seen in any area so far. They were lining the streets. The alleyways and backstreets provided good cover from some of the larger gatherings. I stealthily made my way to the second floor of some large office I had found. I figured it was secure enough to spend the night. Hopefully the next day proves to be as exciting as today.